A Capstone Project presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas--School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

Abstract:

This project centers on fractal identities , a concept inspired by the second chapter of Douglas Rushkoff’s book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, entitled “Digiphrenia: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.” In that chapter, Rushkoff discusses the stress and difficulties (“digiphrenia”) that arise when people try to keep up with many digital persona or presences at once, e.g., smart phones, Facebook, online chat, texting, social media, and email, all at once. Building on this idea of digiphrenia , I developed “fractal identities,” the numerous identities or presences that stem from a single analog identity that has “gone digital,” i.e., the numerous or multiple identities a person forms when being in multiple places at the same time when using digital or online technology, in essence, when multitasking . Eventually, I would build on and give more direction to fractal identities, but this basic conceptualization as “multiple identities” would serve as a working definition for the project’s launch. The final incarnation of the project is on the Fractal Identities: When Analog Self Meets Digital World blog: http://makman13.wix.com/fractalidentities.